1 disk or 2-disk NAS, for relatively small storage need?

[deckeda]

Mostly this would be an iTunes hard disk that lives on the home network, because we use AppleTVs in the house and they need to see content sitting in iTunes.

Because AppleTV won't see "an iTunes server" running on a NAS, we've connected drives to a Mac that serves double duty as the kids' kitchen homework computer. For several years we've used an external disk for this + another external that's a backup copy.

So I'm still drawn to the one disk + another disk for backup strategy despite wanting to move the storage away from the kitchen computer.

Given that, would you get a 1-disk NAS and attach a USB drive to it for backup, or get a 2-disk NAS and configure it to mirror the drives? My preference is for the former, so that I can temporarily make a mistake and not hose the backup. Manually running backups has never been a drawback for me, if that's a factor.

But if there's anything else I should consider pls let me know.

[jdc]

Assuming 2 TB to be plenty... then I think the 2 disk thing is just as easy as the next.

Migrate to two portable drives instead. No power plugs and 2 less cables with 4 less plugs. 2 plugs for the drive and 2 plugs to the wall...

use some short 12" USB cables and velcro them to the back/foot of the iMac.

simple and no more than $150 for two 2 TB drives including the velcro. (saw some 2TB WDs for $60 the other day...)

[deckeda]

2TB isn't enough; I'd actually be going for 3-4TB of space, which I though would be possible with a single-disk NAS.

[jdc]

well, don't leave us guessing...

Fine. Then get two 4 TB portable drives. About double the $$. $130 each.

you always could go thru and start deleting videos. No one is gonna watch Ishtar again Or Avatar (either of them). Or half the other things. =)

[deckeda]

Oh don't you just know it. We did purge Avatar but Ishtar never made it anywhere near there thankfully. I'm still working on several other titles.

[mrbigstuff]

you always could go thru and start deleting videos. No one is gonna watch Ishtar again Or Avatar (either of them). Or half the other things. =)

exactly. I have never seen the point of keeping that stuff on my HD, even if storage is cheap. I live close to an excellent library system, though, and can request nearly any movie from the database. for nuthin.

not that this may be the case from the OP, but I just found a whole slew of stuff (hey, X-Men!) on my old HD on my old MBP I revived. oh, and the Borgias series. gone. no need.

[deckeda]

Our library doesn't have enough decent stuff. Also, there are a few titles that get regular rotation either by the kids or by the wife as background noise. Is it 2TB worth? No, but there's enough of it that purging isn't desired now. And about 1/3 is non-video (music, photo database). There's also the desire to sometimes put these on an iPhone or iPad.

[jdc]

3 TB portables are the best bang for the buck, FWIW,

Almost moved my whole external setup to some really nice 3 TB WD Ultras that were running $100ish -- but then got a deal on a 5 TB Seagate for $92... so got that instead. But I can hear the little freakin fan! GRRRRR. Didnt *need* 5 TB. Should have stuck with the original plan -- small silent storage.

[mattkime]

imo, 2 drive mirror raids don't make much sense. mirror raids are for uptime. they're not a backup - they'll copy any data losses waaay too fast.

[deckeda]

mattkime wrote:
imo, 2 drive mirror raids don't make much sense. mirror raids are for uptime. they're not a backup - they'll copy any data losses waaay too fast.

That's the way I feel also. In my experience data loss through human mistakes trumps data loss through HD error. Of course, the latter tends to be catastrophic to all, so there's that.

So playing along here, if I had a 2-drive box but didn't mirror it, it'd be most valuable as a way to RAID it for increase size.

And then, I'd have to have a backup somewhere else/attached via USB of the same capacity. Like using 2 3TB inside and a single 6TB outside backing it up. Doesn't make sense to me although I haven't priced them like that.

Once things move beyond simple 1-to-1 drives if gets weird fast unless you use RAID5/Drobo methodology and just replace busted drives within the array as necessary but that's a lot of storage and expense I don't need.